This was taken from my Canon camera as a in the moment shot during a bridge crossing over the railway tracks. I've been experimenting with my camera on this business trip the whole time and was able to take a few good shots and this is one those shots that I did not expect to catch when I took it or expected it to be there when I was crossing the bridge. I was pleased with this one chance I had to take the shot, though I probably would do a few things differently if I had the chance again.

I've gotten a better understanding of my camera but there is still lots for me learn on the basics of my camera to be able to take better shots and get better framing.

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- Jekee Desai

This is at the Brookside Gardens in Montgomery County, MD. The sun was setting and I stumbled across this tree in an open area, with the shadows virtually leading me into the shot. I put away my regular camera and picked up my IR-converted D200 to get this, as I love the back lit look of foliage using infrared.
Nikon D200, 20mm 2.8 lens at f8 and 1/60 second; 100 ISO.

- David Fronapfel

SLT-A55V
F/2.8
1.3sec
ISO 100

I spotted this field while driving along one night. I did a U-turn and took a few shots, only to realize that I was too high, so I came back and retook the picture from a lower angle. Fortunately, the weather and traffic cooperated to make this shot, even though the competing light sources didn't make this easy.
Thanks again for the challenge!

- Rick Villarreal

I visited the art museum seeking inspiration for this week's challenge and noticed many maritime paintings seemed to make use of leading lines. The docks and boats at the local Marina provided a great opportunity to find leading lines and also capture my favorite time of the year.
Canon 7D with EF 24-105, f1/13 at 1/15 sec and ISO 100.

-Brian Jones

I took this photo in a greenhouse. This is a view most people don't see as it is above everything used to heat, cool, and water the plants. Taken with the standard iPhone 4 Camera app.

-Jeffery Fetterman

Canon 60D, Tamron Lens 18-270 mm, 50 mm, f/4.5, 1/125

This is a piece of track over an old iron truss bridge - my "go to" spot for pictures, especially those involving lines!

This picture has strong and subtle leading lines that create in interesting effect. I notice that when the picture is large and I look from one place to another the rope appears to move or sometimes have ripples.

The rope is coiled on a table which makes strong lines along one plane. The blue stitching has creates another more subtle set of lines that guide the eyes differently. The light was the sun shining off my BBQ onto the rope and it helped give it more definition.

This may be a good example of what not to do with leading lines :) .

- Robert Bejarano

Nikon D7000 and Micro Nikkor 60 mm f/2.8G, 1/5 sec and F14, ISO 320
I shot a mechanical stairway of an metro exit in Paris with a slow speed.

Summary: Me and my wife were visiting Sheikh Zayed Mosque (Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates), as usual I'm always carrying my Nikon D80. When passing by the columns I looked right and noticed those columns some how form a lead line to the end of the mosque. I quickly imagined the railway photo and in no time my camera was set, sorry for the cleaning guy, this is the clearest I could get.

BTW, I follow the Challenge weekly, but this is my first time to actually participate.

Thank you,

- Mohammad Abu Ajamieh

This shot was taken with my Panasonic GH-1 with the 14-45mm zoom lens at ISO-100, f4.9 at 1/40 of a second at 25mm. Photo was taken in dynamic b/w mode, contrast was very slightly boosted, a moderate sepia tone was added, and a slight crop in post. Before ‘learning' about leading lines from this challenge I had actually taken this exact picture before, sans broom. It's a place I walk by every day going home after work, and I just liked the effect the lines created.
Viewers may think that it was the fact that Halloween is coming that inspired me to add the broom, but actually it wasn't. Here in Japan, people still use such brooms. I actually work at a major university and this photo was taken on its campus. The cleaning staff use these brooms daily, which are handmade with a bamboo rod and twigs tied together with metal wire. I never inquired, but I am assuming that they made them themselves, since the campus is surrounded by bamboo forest and the brooms themselves look quite rustic. Not only do the cleaning staff use these traditional brooms, but they also strap these big metal cans across their bodies, which have incense burning inside to keep away mosquitoes. It's rather quaint seeing them working outside with these big cans attached to their backs, since they are all very sweet older women. The smell of the incense is also actually quite nice, which is something you can experience every summer throughout the entire country.
I've been living in Japan for nearly 10 years, and I know that many people have an image of Japan as this ultra modern, technologically advanced place, but in daily life many people still do things in a very traditional way, even at major modern institutions like universities. This mixture of old and new make it a very interesting place to live in.

- James Rodgers

Hey there!

This is my first time entering Gizmodo's Shooting Challenge and I am really excited about the results. I have been wanting to do the challenges since some time ago but did not seem to have much time. Anyways, when I read the topic for this challenge, I was encouraged to partake as I just came back from a vacation at Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan which had a really great scenery. I remembered a picture I took on a bridge just in front of the cottage we stayed in. It was short, but it was the only bridge that connected the cottage to the shore which was nature's beauty.

I took it with my Canon EOS 40D at 500 ISO, 1/320s, f/5.6 and retouched the photograph a little in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

Cheers

- Kenny Buntara

Hi Guys,

This is a shot of the start (or perhaps the end) of the famous Rideau Canal that runs through the capital city of Canada, Ottawa. I took a trip out there for the weekend as a little get-away and when I saw this I right away thought of your Leading Lines photo competition. This was taken with a Nikon D300s and I used the 7 frame bracketing option and rapid fire burst to create this HDR shot. If you are looking at it and thinking that it isn't as sharp as you would like, try and keep in mind that it was hand held! (Not ideal I know, but sadly no tripod available at the time)

While riding my bike up to Watson Lake north of Bellvue, Colorado, I found this old (but functioning) fishery nearby. The metal walkways lead over the harvesting lanes to the foothills and hogback on the horizon.

- Graham Long

Hey,

First time submitter, long time reader/watcher.

And of course, the one I try and do for the first time seems hard as hell. I had a huge problem with shooting leading lines, simply because I have never thought of the technique before.

The story: I strolled around my hometown's downtown (Hamilton, Ontario) and fired off around 120 shots, in good ol' Canadian weather (9 Celsius, or 48 Fahrenheit) . My submission is of a monument to the Great War, erected outside of an armory in downtown. I like the depth that the brick lines gives the image and force the viewers eyes to the center of the monument. At least that was the thought when I shot it.

Thank for holding these challenges and I look forward to participating in many more!

Cheers,

- Kevin Gamble

Catanduva, Brazil, from a bridge over a toll road where the only curves are the hills. Shot from Canon t2i with 70-200 zoom. Imported to an iPad and cropped/exported with Photogene.

-Brad Corrion

For this week's challenge I set out looking for a bridge to create those lines to funnel the viewer's eyes onto the subject, and since I live a stone's throw from a canal there were plenty too choose from! Almost the first shot I took was this, which features a mysterious woman in red walking away from me/the camera. I undersaturated a little in post-processing so that her jacket attracted the eye even more. Canon 550D with EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6IS, IS0100 18mm -1.3EV f/3.5 1/60.

- Nick Hale

Even before I decided to photograph it, the clean lines and simple color combination of the shirt, waistcoat and ties hanging there waiting to be worn captured my attention. When the shooting challenge was posted later that day, I thought of it, and luckily, it was still there. All it took to get the photograph I wanted was moving the tip of the grey tie into line with the white shirt line from the angle I had chosen.

Canon EOS 550D
f/3.5
1/30 sec.
ISO 2000

-Jeannie Moulton

Shot using an Olympus E-500 with a 14-42mm lens.

Was taking the dog for it's usual Saturday afternoon walk and had my camera with me. Was looking for anything with lines in it! This was one of several shots I took that fulfilled the criteria but I liked it the best. I really like how all the lines converge into the centre of the photograph. It was a very overcast day (as you can see!) and I wasn't too concerned so I just set the aperture to f/8.0 and shot with a shutter speed of 1/160. This to get an exposure that was .7 of a stop below what the metre said as I didn't want to blow the highlights. I used photoshop to convert it to black and white and to touch up the brightness and contrast a little. Otherwise it was all as shot.

- Harry Guinness

There's no better way to unwind on a weekend,than doing what love to do.In my case,that's little strumming and a little shutter-bugging.And the pleasure of combining the two loves of your life,is something that words cannot describe.

Anyway,after reading about the subject for this week's shooting challenge,I once again turned to my favorite subject,my acoustic.

I played around with color,B/W,focused on different points,and finally settled on this particular image.
Frets 5-9 is where I keep playing around the most,and hence decided to focus on that part,as they are the leading lines for me :D.

I just had pancakes (with maple syrup of course!) made for me by my wife which is a rare occasion. We are in an online Formula One tipping competition and whoever submits the worst picks for the race, has to make the breakfast and coffees the following weekend. It is usually me that loses! (even though I am the car guy).

I had my Stratocaster setup on the table and was taking photos of that to enter in this challenge, when the whisk took my eye. This was in the pile of dishes that I had washed and think I will probably have to dry as well! Hardly seems fair to me. I may need to contact the husbands union.

This was shot with a Canon 7d with a Tamron 90mm macro lens supported on a Manfrotto 190 PROBX tripod with 486 RC2 ballhead.

Because of the tripod, I was able to set the ISO low at 100 with a shutter speed of 1/50th and f stop of 3.5. I experimented with different aperture settings but settled on f3.5 as it was most pleasing to my eye and made the leading lines less defined.

This scene was photographed as a promotional piece for a musician friend of mine, Sam Young. He performs under the name Timberwolf. He is a singer/songwriter, a very talented guitarist, and a close friend. I had been eying this location for some time. It was located underneath an overpass and I thought it had great lines and great light. I brought Sam here to shoot knowing that I would intentionally rotate the photograph to sell the effect. I placed him where he needed to be as he played a few songs and we were done in roughly 15 minutes. It was great! The photograph is titled "Listen to my hands." Hope you enjoy! Thank you for your time!

-Michael Lloyd

I was just wandering downtown in Delray with my camera Friday night and thought I'd try to find some shots for the challenge. This is a long exposure with both the light trails of the cars and the curb acting as leading lines to horizon. I used a 3.0 neutral density filter to keep some of the shallow depth of field present. Canon 5d mark II, 24mm, f/2.8, 213 seconds, ISO 250

-Noah Garbarino

Motorola Droid X, 38mm, 1/751sec, f/2.8, ISO 96

- Matt Zarzeka

You see, this is a clock tower at one of our local Uni's. I love the spot that I took the image above all others, as it's the only side that's congested till you get to the top where the negative space blossoms like a rose and all we're left with is the clock face. Pretty, serene and pretty serene, it's an amazing structure and bit of landscaping foresight.

I took it with my one and only body I've ever had, bought new a mere 18 months back... You all know where I'm going with this, so yeah it's broken... kind of, and I haven't the money for repairs. the rear LCD doesn't display anything, though you can see the back light come on when it's supposed to and I can see what is supposed to be displayed if I use HDMI or Live View shooting with a laptop, but of course my old MBP has a dead battery. So this was like shooting back in the day, okay well maybe not that bad, hehe. It was a case of focusing, taking a few shots, realigning then importing to the iPad. And why yes, it is an awesome workflow, I'm thrilled I get to do it this way! :P

Rest of equipment:

Tokina 11mm-16mm @ 11mm

ISO of 1250 (with a negative one exposure comp, evidently, lol)
f/13
4 sec exp
Shot as close to the ground as my Manfrotto 055CXPRO3, hanging or hinged upside down from my Acratech ball head (so pretty damn close, with the angle I was using!)

And you know the workflow, heh. All things said, I think I've been able to create quite a nice piece given my current lack of usual and familiar tools.